Whats the speed of gravity?
Posted: June 2, 2018, 9:50 am
Hey, today I am going to explain some interesting science stuff, which is most likely to be ignored, because y'all are too busy arguing on the topic if there's a god.
So, the best way to explain this, is by taking an example. So, as few of you know, the earth rotates to the sun. A full rotation is equal to a year (365 days). So to give you a view, here's how the earth would rotate.
The black trajectory is the movement of the earth around the sun in 365 days. But, what if the sun suddenly disappeared? Would the earth keep rotating into that trajectory, or would it just accelerate away, because there is no gravity to pull it on rotating. And if it accelerates, would it be instant, or would it take a time?
Newton's theory says that gravity is instant. The way he figured out this theory is by taking this one example. As few of you might know, the light has a speed. For the sun light to reach the earth it would take around 8 minutes. So if the sun disappeared, the light in earth would disappear after 8 minutes. But newton said that if the earths gravity was connected to where the center of the sun was 8 minutes ago, then it would form a disorientation between the planets and possibly a collapse. Why? Because in some planets, the light comes later and sooner, so some other planets would be pulled in a different center from the sun than the other planets. So, imagine the solar planets being pulled by different points.
So, Newton's theory was that gravity is instant. (Of course he didn't have the information of the speed of light but he knew that the light was lagged during long distanced).
Later, Einstein came with the theory of the speed of light and proved that light had a certain speed, which helped people a lot study on the speed of gravity. So what newton got wrong was that gravity could be curved. Imagine gravity as a rope which pulls another planet. I made an image for a better idea:
So in reality, every planet is attracted to the center of the sun (in the solar system). However, just like in reality, the rope has its own energy when its being pulled. So when we take a rope and tie it to a ball then rotate it in air, when we release it, the ball wont just fall off in the ground, but it will go in the direction of where to rope was accelerating in that point. This proves that the rope has some energy in it, and also a timer. The shorter the rope is, the less energy it has, and the longer the rope is, the more energy it has. However, for all the energy to go to the rope, it takes some times. In the naked eye, it appears instant, because it has the speed of light, but in such greater distances like sun-earth, it takes around 8 minutes for the full energy to go to earth and let earth lose of its gravity force. So, for a better understanding, imagine a dynamite fuse burning down. That is how the "gravity rope" lets loose eventually, however, of course its not burning flames, but its burning all the energy which it had from the sun pulling the earth, and the energy transforms in the speed of light.
So, tl:dr, if the sun disappeared, it would take the earth 8 minutes for it to accelerate in the forward direction.
What are the chances any of you understood this? Pretty low, I'd guess. But, if this was more interesting to you than the "does god exist" topics, go ahead and watch this video:
So, the best way to explain this, is by taking an example. So, as few of you know, the earth rotates to the sun. A full rotation is equal to a year (365 days). So to give you a view, here's how the earth would rotate.
The black trajectory is the movement of the earth around the sun in 365 days. But, what if the sun suddenly disappeared? Would the earth keep rotating into that trajectory, or would it just accelerate away, because there is no gravity to pull it on rotating. And if it accelerates, would it be instant, or would it take a time?
Newton's theory says that gravity is instant. The way he figured out this theory is by taking this one example. As few of you might know, the light has a speed. For the sun light to reach the earth it would take around 8 minutes. So if the sun disappeared, the light in earth would disappear after 8 minutes. But newton said that if the earths gravity was connected to where the center of the sun was 8 minutes ago, then it would form a disorientation between the planets and possibly a collapse. Why? Because in some planets, the light comes later and sooner, so some other planets would be pulled in a different center from the sun than the other planets. So, imagine the solar planets being pulled by different points.
So, Newton's theory was that gravity is instant. (Of course he didn't have the information of the speed of light but he knew that the light was lagged during long distanced).
Later, Einstein came with the theory of the speed of light and proved that light had a certain speed, which helped people a lot study on the speed of gravity. So what newton got wrong was that gravity could be curved. Imagine gravity as a rope which pulls another planet. I made an image for a better idea:
So in reality, every planet is attracted to the center of the sun (in the solar system). However, just like in reality, the rope has its own energy when its being pulled. So when we take a rope and tie it to a ball then rotate it in air, when we release it, the ball wont just fall off in the ground, but it will go in the direction of where to rope was accelerating in that point. This proves that the rope has some energy in it, and also a timer. The shorter the rope is, the less energy it has, and the longer the rope is, the more energy it has. However, for all the energy to go to the rope, it takes some times. In the naked eye, it appears instant, because it has the speed of light, but in such greater distances like sun-earth, it takes around 8 minutes for the full energy to go to earth and let earth lose of its gravity force. So, for a better understanding, imagine a dynamite fuse burning down. That is how the "gravity rope" lets loose eventually, however, of course its not burning flames, but its burning all the energy which it had from the sun pulling the earth, and the energy transforms in the speed of light.
So, tl:dr, if the sun disappeared, it would take the earth 8 minutes for it to accelerate in the forward direction.
What are the chances any of you understood this? Pretty low, I'd guess. But, if this was more interesting to you than the "does god exist" topics, go ahead and watch this video:
